The invention is in the field of the processing of piece goods. The device serves the purpose of collating flat objects and conveying them further, wherein the flat objects are in particular printed products.
Collating printed products is understood by the expert as placing different printed products on top of each other to form stacks, wherein normally, identical printed products are superposed in the same succession in all stacks, the stacks, however, may differ in that in individual stacks individual printed products are not present. The printed products are e.g. individual, not folded or folded sheets or kerfs folded several times and the printed products collated to form a stack differ from each other in their printed contents, and may, however, also differ in their shape.
Devices for collating printed products include a plurality of feeding units as well as collating means. Each feeding unit is equipped for the feeding of printed products of a single type into the collating means and the collating means is equipped for the forming of the stacks from the fed printed products. The outlets of the feeding units directed towards the collating means are substantially arranged in a successive line and the collating means comprise a line of compartments for accommodation of the fed printed products, wherein the line of feeding outlets are in parallel to the line of the compartments. During the feeding steps, one compartment is aligned to each feeding outlet. Furthermore, the collating means is equipped for conveying of the fed printed products in a collating direction parallel to the two named lines. The conveying units are e.g. feeders, winding stations or on-line connections with devices in which the printed products to be collated are compiled or processed.
In collating devices in which the printed products are fed into the collating means substantially horizontally to the collating direction, the compartments are normally stationary during the feeding steps and the printed products are moved or tossed into the compartments directed towards the feeding outlets from the side. Between successive feeding steps, the printed products together with the compartments are moved in the collating direction over the distance between successive feeding outlets (or by an integral fraction of this distance), such that the compartments directed towards the feeding outlets are replaced by succeeding compartments. The compartments of such devices are normally arranged such that the printed products come to lie horizontally inside them. In publication U.S. Pat. No. 2,561,070, such a device is described, the compartments of which include one corner which is lower down than the other three corners, such that the printed products deposited therein are aligned to one another at this corner by gravity.
Collating devices, the compartments of which are always stationary, are also known. In this kind of device the printed products fed into the compartments are, between feeding steps, moved with the aid of a slider from the compartment they were fed to through the succeeding compartments, such that all printed products fed in the preceding step are in one compartment which is arranged ahead of the foremost feeding outlet. In order for the printed products moved from compartment to compartment to be stacked regularly in such a device, it is necessary for the printed products to lie oblique in the collating direction, i.e. that the bases of the compartments are arranged in a corresponding oblique manner. Collating devices with the described totally stationary compartments with oblique bases in the collating direction are e.g. described in publications U.S. Pat. No. 1,861,406, GB-1444487 or EP-0292458.
The disadvantages of the collating devices described in short above, in which the compartments are stationary during the feeding, are in particular based on the thus necessary intermittent operation in which large mass needs to be moved and stopped in relatively fast sequences. This means high energy input, high mechanical wear and restricted conveying speeds and, thus, restricted output.
Collating devices with compartments moving substantially continuously in the collating direction do not have the named disadvantages. For a problem-free feeding of the printed products into continuously moving compartments the printed products must, however, be substantially aligned and moved or tossed into the compartments in a precisely synchronized manner, wherein also their speed must be adapted to the conveying speed of the compartments. The collating means of known such devices is e.g. a conveying belt with partitions arranged crosswise and possibly lengthwise to the belt length, wherein two neighboring partitions define one compartment. In these compartments the fed printed products are stacked lying on the conveying belt. Further known collating devices with continuously conveyed compartments comprise V- or L-shaped compartments in which the fed printed products stand on one edge and lean on walls upstream and downstream in the collating direction.
Continuously conveyed compartments, in which the printed products are stacked in a lying manner are simple to implement (e.g. conveying belt with transverse partitions) and they do not require a high accuracy in feeding because they have large openings and may possibly be larger than the printed products to be fed. Because the compartments must be of relatively large dimensions in the collating direction, high conveying speeds become necessary for high output, which restricts application of the device. Furthermore the stacked printed products in the compartments, especially when these are larger than the printed products, are not actually supported and the stacks are, thus, not stabilized, which, in particular, for a further conveying with accelerations and/or changes of direction, may lead to increased effort required when extracting the stacks from the compartments or further processing of the stacks.
V- or L-shaped compartments may be conveyed in much closer succession, such that for an equal output the necessary conveying speeds are much lower. Furthermore the printed products stand on one edge in these compartments and automatically remain aligned to one another in relation to this edge due to gravity. On the other hand, the openings of the compartments are considerably narrower and a relevantly larger accuracy is required in feeding, not only such that the mostly unguided, downstream edge of a printed product to be fed meets the compartment opening in the first place, but in particular that this downstream edge may be safely led past the upper edges of products already stacked in the compartment. The named high feeding speed restricts the conveying speed and, thus, the output of the correspondingly equipped collating device. The compartments are possibly also to be equipped with supporting means by which products already stacked within are pressed against a wall in order not to not conflict with a further printed product to be fed. With this kind of means the compartments become elaborate and complicated regarding the device and its control.